The Winchester Sisters: Fire and Water
by Isobel Morgan
Summary: What would Supernatural have been like if it had been about sisters instead of brothers? An original story in which the sisters, Tara and Alexis, investigate a seemingly straightforward case that soon goes badly wrong, forcing them to seek help from the unlikeliest of sources.
1. Chapter 1: Fire

For anyone who hasn't read the previous 'sisters' stories: Dean is Tara, and Sam is Alex. Jessica is now Dylan, although most of the other characters remain the same.

However, some of this won't make sense unless you've read the sisters version of "What Is And What Should Never Be" first.

(The bullet point version: Tara wakes up in an alternative life engaged to Dylan, pregnant with his baby, which she later miscarries – the djinn, knowing she was a Hunter, deliberately manipulated Tara's dream. This naturally that leaves its mark heavily on Tara.)

**Fire and Water**

**Part One: Fire**

Alex was working at her laptop when Tara finally came in.

Wrapped up in her black leather jacket and shades, clearly hung-over, she stumbled in seemingly without seeing Alex was there, heading for the bathroom.

Alex forced herself to continue with her research, keeping her mouth shut until her sister had finished throwing up, but when Tara finally emerged, she couldn't keep quiet.

"Good night, was it?"

There was more than a trace of sarcasm in her voice.

"Great, thanks," was Tara's somewhat hoarse reply. She grabbed a bottle of water from the sideboard and drained it in quick gulps.

"You could've called," Alex pointed out, knowing she was nagging, sounding more like a housewife than a concerned sister, but she hadn't sat up half the night wondering if Tara was okay, who she was with, what she was doing, for nothing.

"Sorry, Lexie."

Tara refilled the water bottle and chugged it again, not sounding sorry in the slightest.

"I was kinda busy."

She sat on her unused bed and pulled off the shades, rubbing the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger, but she was grinning despite the headache.

"Just… you could've let me know where you were. You just upped and left, wouldn't answer your cell; I was worried."

"You're always worried."

Tara got back up, shedding her jacket as she headed back towards the bathroom, but this time Alex got to her feet too, intercepting.

"With good reason. This is the third time you stayed out all night in a week - "

"What the hell, Lex? I thought you were my sister, not my mom!"

"I'm serious, T. What's going on with you?"

Alex folded her arms, fixing Tara with her glare, but Tara just looked pissed.

"Nothing's "going on with me." I'm just having a good time. Lighten up, will you?"

"This isn't just having a good time, though, is it? You've changed."

"Alex, great though this girly chit-chat is, I really need to take a shower, okay?"

She tried to get past again, but Alex grabbed her arm.

"You can't bullshit me, T, remember? You've changed, and I know when it started."

Tara tried to stare her little sister down.

"Oh yeah? And when was that?"

"After the djinn."

To anyone else, maybe, Tara's reaction would have just been irritation, impatience, but Alex knew her far too well, and she saw the fleeting glimpse of intense pain in her sister's green eyes.

"You ever gonna tell me?"

Tara's expression closed up again, as if it had never been.

"There's nothing to tell. It was a dream, that's all. It kind of rattled me at the time, but I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

Alex was firm, but Tara was no less insistent.

"Yes. I am. Now, can I get in the shower, or not?"

"I heard you, you know."

There was the briefest of pauses.

"Heard me what?"

"When you killed the djinn."

Alex had been holding this back for a while now, not really knowing how to bring this up, hoping it'd work itself out but she couldn't anymore.

"I was stunned; you thought I was out, but I heard you. I heard what you said."

"Yeah?"

Tara sounded tired, as if she didn't have the energy to keep up with the conversation.

"And what was that?"

"About the baby."

For a moment, Tara didn't reply. Then she swept her long black hair back from her face, as if wiping away any expression of her true feelings.

"Like I said, Lexie. It was just a dream. It didn't mean anything."

"I _heard_ you, Tara. You told the djinn you cared about that baby and then it got taken away. And you said to me, later, that it felt real. Just because it didn't really happen doesn't mean you don't feel like it did."

Anger flared up in the older Winchester sister.

"Don't psycho-analyse me! I said I'm fine and I am."

"And that's why you've been drinking yourself stupid and throwing yourself at anything with a pulse these last few weeks?" Alex threw back at her.

"Because you're fine?"

"Oh, screw you, Alex!"

Tara shoved her sister aside and slammed her way into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

Alex felt like punching the wall, but resisted.

"You don't wanna talk about it? Fine!" she bellowed through the closed door, over the sound of running water as Tara switched on the shower.

"But you can't keep pretending nothing's wrong forever!"

Tara was in the bathroom for such a long time, Alex had to assume she was sulking. But she had reason to, and Alex knew she was going to have to find another approach, seeing as how badly the direct one had gone.

So when Tara finally emerged, combing out her wet hair, Alex had resumed her work.

"So," she began and Tara immediately turned to face her, expression pissed and apparently ready for another round.

"If we're not gonna talk about it, how about we follow up on this?"

She spun the laptop around, not looking at Tara.

"What is it?"

"A job."

There was another pause, then Tara sat down and began to read. Alex risked looking over at her sister, and saw the expression on her face change from irritated to interested.

"There've been three?" Tara asked, as she finished the article.

"So far."

Alex reached across the table and took back the computer, bringing up the other articles she'd been reading, the files she'd been creating herself.

"All girls under twelve. First they get sick. Then they go missing, and no trace of them has been found at all."

"All in the same hospital?"

Tara was skimming through Alex's work, seeming more and more like her old self as she read.

"Yep. Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, Minnesota. All with the same mystery symptoms, some kind of a fever, then that night, they vanish. Police have no idea but they're working the serial killer/kidnapper angle."

"What makes you so sure that ain't what's happening?"

"Because," Alex continued, tapping one of the reports. "Nothing out of the ordinary showed up on the security feeds any of the nights the girls vanished."

"I guess," Tara replied, still reading. "If it was just a regular human crime, then someone would've seen them walk into a hospital and carry out an unconscious kid."

"And then there's this mystery sickness they all got. Why would a kidnapper target girls that were sick in the first place?"

Tara pondered this.

"This sound familiar to you?"

"You mean the shtriga in Wisconsin?"

"Yeah. Hope it's not another one of those."

"Eh," Alex shrugged. "We know how to kill it, if it is."

"Yeah. I guess."

She got up, starting to throw her stuff into her bag. Alex hesitated, wanting to finish their earlier conversation – well, fight – but, against her better judgement, decided to let it drop, for now at least. There was always later.

It was early the next morning when the sisters reached Stillwater, dressed up to the nines in their suits. As always, Tara was fidgeting in her tailored jacket and blouse, sensible shoes and trousers that she always complained didn't show off her ass in as good a way as her jeans did. Alex was a little more comfortable in her suit, except for the shoes. Being the shorter sister, she took every opportunity to wear heels that put her on a level with Tara, but they weren't the best for running or fighting. How Agent Scully had done it for ten seasons, Alex couldn't figure.

"I still think we should go for FBI," Tara was arguing.

"CDC makes more sense," Alex pointed out, rummaging through the glovebox for the relevant fake ID.

"FBI wouldn't be asking about what sickness the girls had unless it looked like the kidnapper was also making them sick in the first place."

"Which may well be true. But why would the CDC be investigating missing girls?"

"Why don't you let me handle this bit?" Alex shot back, exasperated. "You can always go look stuff up in the records office, if you'd prefer?"

"Uh, no thanks. That's your job, research girl. I trust you."

"Yeah," Alex snorted. "Trust me to do all the work while you go out hustling pool."

"You saying that ain't work?" Tara responded, mock-offended. "Pays more than the day job."

Alex chose to ignore this.

"You check in with Bobby?" Tara continued.

"Yeah, I gave him a call. He's looking into it, said he's on hand if we need him. And I quote "Stillwater ain't nothing more than the end of the street, compared to some of the places I schlepped to for you girls." I said we'd call again if we needed anything more."

"Schlepped? Bobby said that?"

Tara sounded highly amused.

"There's the hospital," Alex pointed out, as the building came into view.

The sisters slipped all too easily into their fake roles as they parked up, and lied their way past security – of which there was more than usual for a hospital, presumably in response to the three disappearances - and the rather fierce nurse seated at the nurses' station. She'd taken the most convincing, scrutinising their IDs, which were, thankfully, more accurate fakes than some they'd employed in the past. Alex still winced at the memory of someone reading the card she'd given them and remarking sarcastically they hadn't known FBI stood for 'Fit Body Investigators."

Nurse Seabrook looked over the two young women stood before her, claiming to be doctors, with a good deal of scepticism. One was tall and dark haired, strikingly attractive with bright green eyes and a rather more irreverent attitude than she expected from a doctor. The other was shorter, curvier, more conventionally pretty, with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes, looking far too young to be a doctor. But that was something Nurse Seabrook had found herself thinking far too often recently, and she was tired, and they said they were there to help the little girls with the mystery illness, so she let them pass.

With no bodies to check out, the Winchesters had to satisfy themselves with written reports and interviewing the doctors who'd treated the girls.

"So you've never seen anything like this before?" Alex asked Doctor Weir, forcing herself to ignore the way Tara was staring at the tall, dark and handsome diagnostician, who wasn't much older than Tara herself. Every time he looked away from her, Alex shot Tara a look, trying to remind her she was supposed to be a professional.

"Not here," he replied. "Closest I ever saw to symptoms like those girls had was back in my old hospital, about five years ago. We had an outbreak of arsenic poisoning, something to do with the wood treatment plant nearby… but the bloodwork for our girls showed nothing like that."

"Poison?" Alex pounced on his words

"Yeah. But like I said, we ran all kinds of tox screens and there was nothing."

"Nothing detectable," Tara interjected, finally tearing her eyes away from Dr. Weir particularly fine ass.

He shrugged, accepting her scepticism.

"Symptoms don't match anything known either, and they didn't respond to medication; just got worse and worse, fast."

"And then they vanished?" Alex asked.

"…yeah."

Dr. Weir sounded uncomfortable.

"That's kind of security's problem. I just tried to make the kids better."

"Is there any chance the girls wandered away by themselves?" Alex pressed.

"If they were sick… maybe they were hallucinating or something?"

Dr Weir gave her a hard stare.

"These kids were in the last stages of organ failure and respiratory collapse," was his reply.

"They were non-responsive and probably hours from death; they couldn't have gotten out of their beds if you put 10,000 volts through them."

"Thanks for that image," Tara muttered.

"So whatever this is," Alex cut in, trying to ignore her sister and focus on the case in hand.

"It's fatal."

"Unless you lot at the CDC can come up with something, then yes," Doctor Weir replied. He looked exhausted, dark circles under both his eyes; the weight of his diagnosis was clearly pressing heavily on him.

"I'm just praying we don't have a genuine outbreak on our hands."

"Well, like you said, that's why we're here."

Unfortunately for Dr Weir, prayer did not seem to be working. Just as the words left his mouth, a young resident in scrubs came rushing up.

"Doctor Weir! We've got another one!"

The doctor turned completely grey and let loose a series of impressive curse words.

"Excuse me, Dr Wretzky, Dr Auf der Maur. Perhaps you should come along?"

A couple of hours later, the sisters left the hospital, with some relief. They decided to walk around the adjacent Washington Square Park while they brainstormed, sipping coffee in takeout cups to keep out the chill of the autumn breeze.

"What kind of name for a shop in a hospital is "Fractured Frog"?"

Tara sounded disgruntled. Alex laughed.

"I think it's cute."

"You would."

Alex stopped suddenly, frowning as the wind brought an unexpected sound to her ears.

"Do you hear singing?"

Her sister did the same, autumn leaves scrunching beneath their shoes.

"Yeah, There a church near here, or something?"

Alex consulted the map she was carrying within her folder, tucking the newspapers she'd bought under her arm.

"No, not really. Hospital chapel's closest. But there's a bandstand or something in the park, apparently."

"Well, hey. After everything we've seen today," Tara replied. "This kind of weird I can handle."

But as they turned the corner to set eyes on their destination, things got a whole lot weirder.

Around the pavilion, a small crowd had gathered. Arms linked, singing in unison, they were an oddly-dressed group, ignoring the strange looks they were getting from the other occupants of the park. Most wore loose, brightly coloured clothing, robes almost, and flowers adorned their hair. Even from the back of the crowd, the Winchesters could smell potent incense burning, and one woman appeared to be building some kind of altar on the sidewalk, stacking flowers and plaited grasses dangerously close to the flickering open flames of the many candles strewn across the scene.

The sisters stopped, open-mouthed.

"Goddamn witches!" hissed an elderly man standing across the path from the pagan gathering.

"T'aint Christian, all that chanting and burning stuff."

"Uh, that's exactly what happens in Catholic churches," Alex pointed out.

The man glared at her.

"And you'd know, girl? You with that heathen symbol round your neck?"

He pointed at Tara's amulet before shuffling away, triumphant.

The girls exchanged a glance.

"Witches, huh?" Tara said. "How about that?"

Alex turned back to the crowd, still raising their voices to the wind. There were police officers watching the scene unfold, but none had yet made any move to interfere. Many seemed actively amused by it all.

The Winchesters went closer, trying to pick out words from the chanting, which appeared to be in English at least.

"I don't recognise it," Alex admitted.

"That's cos it sounds like a bunch of hippy crap," Tara snarked, losing interest.

"We should check it out, though," Alex insisted. "Can't be a co-incidence, can it?"

Alex approached one of the bystanders, one wearing normal clothing, her face devoid of any painted flowers.

"What's going on?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"It's a purification ritual," was the woman's rather startling response.

"After the little girls started getting sick… people want to do anything they can."

"Purification ritual?"

The incredulity stood out in Tara's voice.

"What's that supposed to do?"

The woman shrugged.

"Like I say, people'll try anything when their kids are dying and no-one knows why. No different from praying, is it?"

Alex looked at her more closely. She was young, maybe twenty-five, wearing jeans and a short army green jacket, her dyed-red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a silver stud in her nose, several studs in each ear and numerous symbols jangled around her neck above a Breeders T-shirt.

"What brings you here?"

"My friend's kid has it. She's in the hospital right now. It's kind of hard to have hope when the doctor's don't."

Alex found she didn't know what to say.

"And the flower children? You with them?"

This was Tara, holding back her cynicism as much as she could.

"Hell, no! Some white chick you're not related to starts calling you Sister, it's time to start running."

Tara grinned despite herself.

"I hear you."

"But having said that… they are here as part of the community. And I do know most of them."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I work in this bookstore downtown. Aradia, on Myrtle Street? Don't know if you've ever been by… we specialise in pagan and Wicca stuff."

"Uh, we just got into town today."

This time, it was their subject's turn to look them over, taking in their suits with faint suspicion.

"You reporters?"

"No, no. Just visiting some family," Alex lied smoothly. "We heard about the little girls, though. Terrible. And no-one has any idea what happened to them?"

The girl shook her head.

"Me, I think maybe we got ourselves some kind of sick freak bodysnatcher. As if the kids getting ill wasn't enough…"

Again, the sisters exchanged significant glances.

"A bodysnatcher?"

"You know what I mean. The girls…the kids. They were dying. Why would anyone, _anyone_ abduct them?"

The girl began to cry, so Alex squeezed her shoulder, muttered something sympathetic and the Winchesters made their excuses.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Tara asked as they walked away, her face grim.

"I don't know, Tara. This doesn't sound like a shtriga. Not like the last one, anyway."

"Then what? We got a mysterious illness no-one's ever seen before that kills within days. We got bodies vanishing without trace and no witnesses, despite all this police presence. And now we got witches."

"Wiccans," Alex corrected.

"Same difference."

"Hardly."

Alex glanced back over her shoulder at the chanting crowd.

"This lot aren't exactly the type to murder kids, are they?"

"Shtrigas take on human faces, remember?"

Alex sighed.

"Okay, fine. So, we go back to the hospital tonight? Stake out the kid's room and see who shows up?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Tara shivered, cursing her luck that she's lost Rock, Paper, Scissors – again -and had to wait outside in the freezing cold while her sister got to sit in the nice, warm hospital, 'observing' the patient. And the window to the patient's room was on the wrong side of the building for her to sit in the car, so that meant she had to hide in the trees, toting binoculars like some kind of wannabe spy, waiting for the sonofabitch to show up so she could kill it. Alex still wasn't convinced it was a shtriga, so instead of nice, easy to carry iron rounds, Tara was lugging half her weapons collection with her, just in case.

"I almost hope you're right, Lexie," she muttered to herself, slinging her leather jacket on over her suit, wrapping it tight around herself and breathing on her hands to warm them a little.

"I'm gonna be pissed if you're not, whatever happens."

It had gotten dark early, and it felt like hours in the first ten minutes, so the real hours dragged and dragged, leaving Tara wishing her cell phone had a few decent games on it. Not that she'd admit that to Alex, of course. Technology was yet another thing the sisters argued about, although at least that argument was one they almost enjoyed, compared with the real ones.

Tara picked up the binoculars again; Alex was still sitting tucked away in the corner of the hospital room, reading. The doctors came and went, checking the little girl. The parents were sat at her bedside, not moving an inch and Tara, for a moment, felt that she understood what they were going through. Then she remembered that she didn't, that her baby had been the product of some acid trip dream, nothing more, was never real, and she shoved that thought firmly out of her head.

"_Concentrate, girl",_ she thought.

After a small eternity, one of the doctors took the parents out of the room to talk to them, and almost immediately, Tara saw movement right outside the hospital window, as if whatever this was had been waiting for such an opportunity.

That was different; she'd been expecting the attack to come from within – if this monster wasn't one of the hospital staff, then that just added to the mystery. A shadow stood just to the side of the window; from where Tara was sitting, it looked like a man. The light was poor, but he seemed tall, broad shouldered, with a lot of hair and a beard. Not someone they'd met before, then.

Tara unholstered her gun, moving forward as quietly as she could. If this was a shtriga, then they had to wait until it fed, which meant this rested with Alex. But if it wasn't, then Tara was ready. Whatever it was, it killed kids, and that was a special kind of nasty that Tara couldn't wait to gank.

What happened next, Tara was never entirely sure of. The man put his hand to the window, and Tara broke into a run, but the thing, whatever it was, god it was fast. The window was open and the figure had leapt through before Alex, whom the creature didn't seem to have noticed, had even gotten to her feet. As Tara sprinted to the window, shots were fired, glass shattered and there were the sounds of something like an explosion. Then Alex screamed and Tara saw something that made even her, a lifelong Hunter, stop and stare.

This was no shtriga.

As Tara stared, open-mouthed, it threw back its head and roared, revealing the three rows of razor-sharp teeth that filled its mouth. Blue eyes blazed from a face that was sort of human, covered in a mass of red hair, like the mane of a lion, and _the damn thing breathed fire. _The curtains had burned up, leaving nothing behind and through the smoke, the thing raised a hand, exposing talons that looked as sharp as the teeth. Tara saw it had some kind of opening on the inside of its wrist, like the one that hid the spike on a wraith. Instinct took over, and Tara dodged as something shot past her ear to land in the bushes.

A man in security uniform came bursting into the room, stopping in complete disbelief at the scene that greeted his eyes. Fumbling for his gun, he was too slow and the creature scythed its claws across his chest before backhanding him across the room, breaking his neck and killing him instantly. Snapping out of her shock and into action, Tara went on the attack, emptying her clip into the back of the thing – monster – whatever the hell it was, barely making it stagger. But the shots brought more people running and, faced with the prospect of further confrontation, the creature fled, leaping back through the open window and vanishing, faster than Tara would've thought possible. With that speed, no wonder nothing had shown up on the security cameras for the last three children, having found quieter moments to strike on those occasions.

"What the hell?"

Tara vaulted through the broken window into the ruined hospital room. The little girl in the bed was miraculously unharmed by the attack, but Alex was slumped on the floor, unconscious and unmoving.

"Lexie!"

She barely had time to take this in when the doctor and the girl's parents ran into the room.

"Help me!" Tara screamed as Alex began to choke and convulse.

What had happened? What had that thing done to her sister?

Forcing away her panic, Tara noticed a black spike sticking out of Lexie's throat. It was small and appeared to be dissolving, vanishing without trace as Tara tried to grab hold of it, leaving not so much as a mark on her sister's skin.

And then the doctor, having hit the alarm and seen that the little girl had come through the attack unscathed, pushed Tara aside, checking Alex's vital signs. More medics came in, pushing a gurney and Tara got to her feet, brushing away tears of panic and shock as the medics lifted her sister up and wheeled her away. Tara followed, clutching at Lexie's hand as her sister's whole body shook, reacting to whatever the hell that thing had done to her. But as they reached a set of double doors, orderlies grabbed hold of Tara, wrenching her away so the doctors could start work on Alex.

"What in the world happened?"

Tara, gnawing her fingers as she watched through the porthole window, turned to see Dr Weir came up, confusion radiating from him. Even through her fear for her sister, Tara found she could still lie like a champ.

"I have no freakin' idea. We were – monitoring the little girl, seeing if there was any change. Then this guy comes in through the window - I swear to you, he just leapt in – and attacked her. He killed the guard and… he shot Lexie with some kind of dart; I think he poisoned her."

"Poison?" Dr Weir's eyebrows shot up. "That doesn't – I mean…"

"You said it looked like the girls had been poisoned."

"But their toxicology tests were clean."

"Hers might not be."

Tara pointed through the window, where three medics were holding her sister down, trying to control her convulsions.

"Please, you gotta help her."

"Of course. But, one thing. Security said shots were fired. He had a gun?"

"No, we did."

"CDC issue handguns?"

Tara cursed their choice of alibi – knew they should've gone for FBI.

"When bodies start vanishing from hospitals, it's best to take precautions, yeah?"

Dr Weir was staring at her, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Look, I gotta start making calls, okay?"

Tara pulled out her cell phone and headed outside. She wanted to stay with Lexie, but what could she do?

So she called Bobby.

"Hey, Tara. How's the hunt goin'?"

"Bad. This thing, I don't know what it is and Lexie's hurt. I don't know what to do-"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, kid. Alex is hurt? What happened?"

Despite his habitual gruffness, Tara could hear the concern in Bobby's voice.

"I don't know. It's fast, Bobby. Real fast. I barely got a shot in."

"What happened to Alex?"

"It hit her with some kind of poison dart…it dissolved before I could pull it out, and now she's sick, like the little girls."

There was a silence at the end of the phone.

"Bobby? You there?"

"I'm here. I think I got an idea what it might be. You get a good look at it?"

"Not really. Looked like a man… big, lot of red hair, kinda like Groundskeeper Willie? You know, from the Simpsons?"

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, teeth. Lots of teeth. More than one set."

"Like a shark?"

"I don't know, I never had a run-in with a shark!"

"Ever see Jaws?"

"Bobby, it wasn't a freakin' shark, okay? This was on land, in a hospital and Lexie could be dyin' right now!"

"Alright, hold your horses. This thing had red hair, lots of teeth, it's fast and it shoots poison darts?"

"That's pretty much it, yeah. Oh and it breathes fire. Can you believe that?"

"Aw, hell."

Bobby sounded serious.

"Tara… that's a Manticore."

This did not make Tara feel any better.

"What's a Manticore?"

"Bad news. These things are rare… I never seen one for real. They come from what used to be Persia, originally. Their name means 'eater of people' and that's what they do – poison people and then eat them."

"Look, how do I kill it? That's all I care about right now. That and how to make Alex better."

"I don't know if there's a way to do either. I'm real sorry, Tara - "

"Sorry, my ass! This is _Lexie_, Bobby. You got a house full of books and you're telling me you don't know?"

"Don't yell at me, girl. I didn't say I wouldn't try. I'm just tellin' it like it is, so you know this might not go the way you want it to."

"You think I don't know that? You didn't see her, Bobby. This is – hell, this is something new. I don't know what else to do."

"I'm on it, Tara. I'll call you back soon as I have anything, then I'm coming your way."

Tara closed her eyes, exhaling heavily, trying to steady herself.

"Okay. Thanks."

"Did ya really think I weren't gonna help you? Idjit."

Despite everything, Tara smiled.

"So… who'd know about poisons? You got any contacts?"

"Not really. I'll see what comes up."

Tara hung up, but as she turned to go back in to the hospital, she saw she wasn't alone.

"Poisons?"

It was the young red-headed woman from the park; she held a cigarette in her hand and Tara had no idea how long she's been there.

"Who's poisoned? You think the kids were poisoned?"

Tara's first reaction was to lie, lie and lie again, but she knew the best chance for Lexie was to find a cure, an antidote and the more people who were looking, the better.

"Yeah. This guy just broke into the little girl's room and he attacked my sister. Now she's sick too."

"Did I hear you right? You said Manticore?"

Tara started. The girl looked apologetic

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop… just came out for a smoke."

She looked down at the still-burning cigarette in her hand, threw it away and ground it out with her toe.

"I know these things'll kill me, but I just can't seem to quit… why were you talking about Manticores?"

Again, Tara hesitated.

"You know what that is?"

"I read about them. Some kind of mythical wild beast in Asia… has the body of a lion and head of a man, eats people?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Don't suppose anything you read told you how to kill them, did it?"

The girl's eyes went very wide and for a moment her lips moved with no sound coming out.

"Um… no. Are you serious?"

"That thing poisoned my sister. It's killed three kids already and tried to kill another. Damn straight I'm serious."

"Are you sure about this? The poisoning thing, I mean. The doctor said-"

"The doctors don't know a damn thing! Look, I never heard of this thing before tonight, but my friend tells me that's what it is, then that's my best shot."

"Okay."

There was a pause.

"You got a car?"

"Why?"

"I think I got something that could help, but it's at the shop. Can you give me a ride?"

"What sort of thing?"

The girl sighed.

"The woman that owns the shop… she has a collection of weird stuff I'm not supposed to know about. But I do and, well. You know what a bezoar is?"

"No."

"It's supposed to be the ultimate antidote."

Tara stared at her, uncomprehendingly.

"You know, it's supposed to counter poison."

"For real?"

"Well, I don't know about that. But that's what it says on the jar, and I did some research-"

"It cures poisoning?"

Tara grasped onto this faint ray of hope with both hands.

"Like I said, supposedly. I don't know for sure-"

Tara was already digging through her pockets for the Impala's keys.

"How far away's this store of yours?"

Aradia on Myrtle Street, it turned out, was pretty close, but Tara was still hopping from foot to foot with impatience as the girl worked her way through the locks on the front door. It was something of a novelty to be entering a closed store at night without having to break in, but waiting for her to use three separate keys, then disable the alarm took way too long for Tara. Lexie was lying in a hospital bed, dying and Tara didn't give a rat's ass for somebody else's security alarm at a time like this.

"Sorry."

The girl noticed Tara's anxiety.

"We have a little trouble, now and then, from some of the more… vocal religious groups. Think we're Satan worshippers and all that."

"Are you?"

"Excuse me!" The girl was insulted. "They're the ones who believe Satan exists, not us!"

"Okay, whatever. I'm Tara, by the way. What's your name?"

Tara realised she knew nothing about this girl she was essentially trusting Lexie's life to. Again, the reply was rather startling.

"Aedre. Aedre Seren Cantrell."

"Really?"

"Well, it's my craft name, not my birth name. It means River Star."

"Craft name?"

"Yeah. You know, my Wiccan name? The one I practise under."

Tara stopped, suspicious.

"You're a witch?"

"No, I said Wiccan. You're the one who started talking about mythical creatures poisoning our kids. Remember?"

"Yeah, I Hunt things like that. Monsters, spirits, things that prey on people. Evil things. I Hunt them, and I kill them."

Aedre Seren paused in the act of keying in the code for the alarm.

"You what?"

"It's what we do, my sister and me. We came here to find out what was killing those kids and to take it down."

There was a long, heavy silence.

"Good. Let's find that bezoar, shall we?"

She went straight to the back room behind the counter – the store was fairly small, divided into two, with books on one side, and more esoteric supplies on the other. Beckoning Tara to follow her, Aedre unlocked a huge old oak cabinet in the corner of the room and began to rummage through it. Sinking to her knees, she pulled out box after box, searching through them until, after a few minutes she found what she was looking for.

"That's it?"

Tara stared at the earthenware pot Aedre had taken from a cardboard box, and the small rounded grey stone that nestled inside it on a bed of what looked like hay.

She reached out to pick it up but Aedre slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch it! It has to be distilled to work."

"Distilled?"

"That's what I read, anyway."

She got to her feet, carrying the pot over to the store's counter and carefully setting it down.

"Okay. Now we need to make some Clearwater. Fill that, would you?"

She pointed at a large glass jar with a stopper on the cabinet next to the counter.

"There's a faucet out back."

Tara did as she was asked.

"So, uh, what's Cleanwater?"

"Clearwater. Sort of like… holy water for Wiccans."

Aedre Seren sorted through the charms around her neck, taking off the pentagram and wrapping the cord around her palm. She glanced up at Tara.

"What's yours?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your talisman."

She indicated Tara's neck.

"Um. Not exactly sure. Lexie gave it to me, when we were kids."

"Looks like Hathor. Or maybe Mithras. Can I borrow it?"

Tara started, her hand closing instinctively around the amulet, protective.

"Why?"

"You'll get it back. I'm not gonna damage it… it's clearly a strong link between you and your sister, and that makes it powerful. It'll help the Clearwater start to work."

Tara hesitated, then took off the amulet, handing it over. Aedre added it to her own charm, dunking them both in the water, closing her eyes and beginning a silent chant.

Tara watched for a moment as the other girl's lips moved in words she couldn't follow, trying to bite down on her impatience. She cast her eye over the store's contents, besides the books, looking for anything that might prove useful but they were the standard supplies for the Craft, nothing she hadn't used herself when she had to. Eventually, Aedre Seren finished her spell and handed back Tara's amulet, hanging her own back around her neck.

Then she grabbed a pair of tongs, lifting the bezoar out from the pot with tongs, took a deep breath, and dropped the stone into the jar. The moment the stone made contact with the Clearwater, it began to smoke and bubble, like something out of Doctor Frankenstein's lab.

"Holy crap!"

Tara stared at the transforming liquid. She'd cast a number of spells herself, but sometimes these things still caught her by surprise.

"Blessed be," was Aedre Seren's reply, a rather mischievious smile on her face.

"You knew it'd do that?"

"This is as far as I got with testing it out. I mean, I wasn't exactly gonna try poisoning someone to see if it works without being pretty damn sure first."

"Okay… what now?"

"It has to sit for a while, I think…"

Aedre returned to the back room, taking down a massive leather-bound tome from the bookshelf.

"This is the owner's Book of Shadows. I'm not really supposed to read it."

"But you did anyway."

Aedre gave a guilty smile.

"Most other Wiccans I meet aren't all that into practising much that isn't about female empowerment and embracing the love of the Mother. Like the flower children, you know? But the stuff in here-"

She tapped the front of the book, flipping it open and searching through the pages.

"Works."

Tara found herself curious despite everything, had to remind herself what some – all, in her experience – witches were capable of. Wondered if she could get away with stealing this book when everything else was done. Could be useful.

"Okay, here we are… yeah, it has to lie for two to three hours, then we can take it back to the hospital."

"_Three hours?_ What, I'm just supposed to sit here and stare at the walls while my sister's dying?"

"She's in the best place she can be, for now," Aedre reminded her gently. "If you want to go back and wait there, I'll make my own way to the hospital once this is ready."

But much as Tara wanted to go back and stand guard over her baby sister, she knew she needed more information – namely how to kill this sonofabitch.

"Can I see that?" she indicated the Book of Shadows.

Aedre hesitated.

"This is where you heard about Manticores, right?"

"It's the best source, yeah."

Aedre slid the book towards Tara and went over to the bookshelves, scanning through the titles while Tara flipped the pages of the handwritten tome, pulling out her cell phone.

Bobby answered within the first few rings.

"Yeah?"

"Bobby, you ever hear of a bezoar?"

"Nope. You hunting something else now?"

"No, nothing like that. It's supposed to be an antidote to poisoning."

"Where'd you hear of a thing like that?"

"I got one here."

Silence greeted that revelation.

"You still there?"

"Tara… what're you doin'?"

Tara ignored the disapproval in Bobby's voice; she'd gotten enough of that from her actual father, when he was still alive. She didn't need it from his substitute as well.

"I'm trying to save Lexie. And if it works, then, who cares?"

"_I_ care. Look, I know how you feel…"

"No, Bobby. You don't."

"I'm coming out there now."

"You know how to kill this thing yet?"

"Not unless you have the horn of a unicorn handy."

"Seriously?"

Tara had heard all sorts of weird things that day, but that was a new one.

"That's the only thing I've read so far that's said to work."

"Then you need to keep on it until we're sure we can waste this thing. Call me when you know."

Tara hung up, continuing to flip through the book until she found the entry she was looking for.

"_The Manticore __is a __legendary creature__ similar to the Egyptian __sphinx__. Name comes __from early Middle Persian, means "the Eater of People," considered to be the most dangerous predator in Asia, has the body of a lion and the head of a human_," she read aloud, skim-reading the opening paragraphs.

"Close, but no cigar. '_Size reports range from lion-sized up to horse-sized, however, as early as the second century A.D. writers thought that the Manticore was nothing more than a man-eating Indian tiger. The physical embellishments, either indicative of the fears the people had for the beast or anecdotal exaggeration or misinterpretations of Indian sculptures_.' Huh. If only."

Aedre dumped several books down on the counter and went back to the shelf. Tara sighed.

"_It was seen as an unholy hybrid of the zodiacal signs __Leo__, __Scorpio__ and __Aquarius__, has three rows of sharp teeth, may be horned, winged, or both_ – yikes. _It has poisonous spines which it shoots like arrows to either paralyze or kill its victims, which it then feeds on… Its size ranges from the size of a lion to the size of a horse. It is also mistaken as a bearded man when seen from a distance._' Blah blah blah. How do I kill it?"

"I remember reading somewhere that Manticores challenge their prey with riddles," Aedre interjected, flicking through one of the books she had picked out.

"Do they die if you guess right?" Tara asked, sourly.

"Uh… don't think so. I think you just get to live."

"Fantastic. Just to ask… you don't have a unicorn horn in that magic closet of yours, do you?"

Aedre gave her a long, steady look, trying to figure out if that was a serious question.

"No. No, I don't. Dare I ask?"

"Never mind. Look, d'you mind keeping on with this? I have to go…well, I have to go steal some stuff, actually."

Aedre took this in her stride, which Tara appreciated. If only everyone they came across was this calm, not to mention useful.

"Sure."

Tara thought about trying to brazen it out, trusting in her faithful faked ID but decided in the end that might backfire and limited that to just getting in – security was going crazy, following the attack and the death of the guard – and so Tara settled for her more usual sneaking around the hospital. She risked a few minutes checking in on Lexie, who was lying like a corpse on a hospital bed, pale and unresponsive. But she couldn't stay, and headed back to Aradia, where she was pinning her hopes on some magic rock in a bottle of pagan hippy water.

Aedre Seren was still working her way through the pile of books, the bottle of bezoar water bubbling away beside her, when Tara returned, toting a handful of IV bags and lines and an organ box filled with ice.

"And these are for…?" Aedre asked.

"The hospital thinks my sister and I are from the CDC," Tara replied, blasé.

"And I figured we stand a better chance of actually getting this stuff in if they think it's some kind of medicine, a known antidote instead of-"

"Instead of what? Magic?"

"The truth don't go down too well in my experience. Especially not with the authorities. How's it cooking?"

Tara indicated the effervescing jar of water.

"Pretty steady, as far as I can tell. No luck on the rest of it, though."

Aedre closed the book in front of her, opening another and beginning to scan it. Tara pulled her father's journal from her pocket, having retrieved it from the car. She doubted John had ever come across a Manticore, seeing how rare Bobby said they were and, yet again, found herself wondering if he'd have been any help here, if he were still alive.

Tara had never been too good at the patience lark, so the wait was long and tense, but thankfully the research made it seem less of a wait, if only marginally. Tara and Aedre cautiously decanted the now slightly cloudy liquid into the IV bags, filling all of them and packing them into the medical box as gently as they could.

"Now what?" Aedre asked.

"Now, I take these back to the hospital and lie my ass off," was Tara's rather tense reply. Looked like Alex had been right to insist on a CDC alias, after all.

"You'd be better off staying out of this."

"As if! I have no idea if this is really going to work; you think I'm gonna sit here doing nothing? And Brooke - Max's mom – she's beside herself with worry: I want to be there for her."

"Okay. Just – go see the kid and stay out of my way."

Aedre didn't argue, heading for the little girl's room as soon as they reached the hospital and leaving Tara to deliver their home-brew medicine.

Dr Weir was clearly sceptical at Tara's story of an antidote helicoptered in from Atlanta in less than three hours, but he was just as obviously exhausted and out of options. The little girl, Max Wiley, was still dying and he had no other idea how to save her, so he agreed to install Tara's mystery cure in both girl's IV lines.

Tara sat at Alex's bedside, refusing to shift no matter what anyone said. She'd been hoping that this miraculous cure would be just that – a miracle. Alex would be instantly better, and they could get on with hunting and ending this ugly-ass monster. She found herself remembered her own brushes with death. Not the near-misses, which were too many to count, but the real ones; her electrocution, that would have been fatal had it not been for the faith healer and his wife's pet Reaper. And then there was the demon-induced car smash that had, technically, killed her. The massive guilt of the knowledge her father had sold his soul, condemning himself to Hell, so that she could live, still weighed heavily on Tara, and that was without the lingering memory of her djinn dream, which had taken her suicide to wake up from.

With a start, Tara realised that her other hand, the one that wasn't tightly gripping Lexie's hand, was gently stroking her stomach, where the baby from her dream had been. She snatched it away, cursing. Why was that so hard to shake? There was no baby. Had never been and, knowing her life, would never be. Surely the very real possibility that she might lose her sister was bad enough without bringing up things that weren't even real.

Tara only realised she'd fallen asleep when she woke with a start, sunlight landing on her face through the window. Alex was still unconscious, but she seemed to be breathing easier, and her forehead was cooler than it had been the night before.

"Coffee?"

Tara jumped; she was so wrapped up in Lexie's situation, she hadn't even heard the door open. She turned to see Dr Weir in the doorway, holding out a paper cup.

"God, do you live here? When did you last go home?" Tara asked, taking the proffered caffeine gratefully.

"I could ask the same of you," Dr Weir replied, gently. He took the chair on the other side of Lexie's bed, drinking from his own cup.

"We're - close."

"I get that. As for me… I know these kids. Brooke Wiley and I were at school together. Seeing little Max like this… I wouldn't be able to sleep if I did go home."

"How's she doing?"

"Honestly? I don't know. Your concoction seems to have slowed down her decline, but as to getting better? Nothing about this case makes any sense."

"You're telling me."

"So, Dr Wretzky. You got a first name?"

Tara met his eyes, which were kind, concerned, and if she was not mistaken, interested. Every cloud…

"D'Arcy," she lied, glad that she was the one who got to make up their aliases. Made it easier to remember.

"How 'bout you?"

"Dylan."

Tara's growing smile faded instantly. Of all the co-incidences… not only the name of Alex's deceased boyfriend, but, in the dream the djinn gave her, the same Dylan had been the father of the baby she lost.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, no. Just the name of a sort of – ex."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't be. It's the past."

"I got a middle name, if that helps?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"John."

Tara laughed out loud, couldn't help it. Maybe sometimes there were such things as coincidences, but she couldn't help but feel the universe was deliberately trying to screw with her.

"Another ex?"

"My dad was called John. He – passed this year."

"Oh. Sorry again?"

"Stop apologising!"

Tara focused on Dr Weir's dark, pretty eyes to prevent herself getting all angsty and girly.

"It's fine. So, tell me. You lived here long?"

"Grew up here. Went away to college, but this place… it sort of pulls you back in."

"That good, huh?"

"Well, not right now. But apart from this-" Dr Weir gestured towards Alex's sick bed.

"Yeah. It's a good place to call home. How about you? You must move around a lot?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. But it's not all bad. We help a lot of people; that makes up for most of it."

"That why you became a doctor?"

Tara gulped her coffee, praying he'd shut up soon. She was too worried about Lexie to put her heart into lying this much, especially to a guy who, had she met him in a bar, she'd be trying to pick up.

"Pretty much. You the same?"

"Yeah. It can be tough, but when they get better… makes it all worth it."

And as if on cue, or perhaps to save her sister from having to keep on making up a fake backstory, Alex's eyelids flickered and she began to cough. Both her attendants leapt to their feet, Dr Weir checking the readings on her monitoring machines while Tara grabbed Alex's hand.

"Lexie? You there?"

Alex looked around, confused, trying to sit, but Dr Weir pressed a hand to her shoulder.

"Don't try and move. Your system took a hell of a pounding there; you need to rest. I have to go check on Max, but I'll be right back."

These last words were directed at Tara, who nodded.

"What-?" the oxygen mask over Alex's face muffled her words, but Tara understood.

"You were poisoned. The thing-"

Tara glanced toward to door, but the coast seemed to be clear.

"It wasn't a shtriga. It's a Manticore."

This didn't help Alex's confusion much.

"What?"

"I'll explain later. Bobby's coming up with a way to kill it right now, so you just get better, okay? Don't scare me like that, Lexie."

Whatever it was that the bezoar did, it made short work of the poison in Alex's bloodstream and within a few hours, she was almost completely recovered.

Dr Weir didn't know what to make of it.

"Max isn't out of the woods just yet, but she is improving. I think she stands a good chance of pulling through. You, however, are pretty close to a miracle. How d'you feel?"

"I'm okay," Alex replied, honestly. "A bit hazy on the memory side of things, but basically okay."

"Lucky your partner here came up with the goods."

"Yeah. I am."

He didn't want to discharge Alex, but couldn't stop her doing so herself, especially as he was still under the impression she was a doctor herself.

As soon as they were safely out of earshot, climbing into the Impala, Alex was all business.

"So… what the hell's going on?"

Tara sighed.

"It's complicated. And weird. There's someone you need to meet."


	2. Chapter 2: Water

**Fire and Water**

**Part Two: Water**

Tara filled her sister in as best she could on the short drive to Aradia, where Aedre Seren was waiting for them. The store was open, with one or two of the Wiccans the Winchesters recognized from the park browsing its shelves, and Aedre ushered them into the back room.

"So… no idea how to kill it, then?" Alex asked, poring over the collection of books Aedre had assembled.

"Not in these," Aedre replied. "And your friend seems to be drawing a blank too?"

Tara nodded. She'd checked in with Bobby twice, and he had been less and less tolerant with her each time, even after finding out that Alex was okay.

"Just that it's apparently impervious to iron, silver, rock salt and pretty much everything else we regularly use. Decapitation might work, but the problem there is getting close enough to try that without getting set on fire."

"Well," Aedre took a deep breath. "There is something you could try."

She stopped, and Tara got up impatiently.

"What is it?"

"Um, there's a sort of local legend. How much do you know about Minnesota?"

"What're you talking about?"

"It grew out of water," Aedre replied, clearly trying to keep it simple.

"The state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-blue water". You ever hear Minnesota called Land of 10,000 Lakes? That's not an exaggeration. And Stillwater's pretty much where everything started – the birthplace of Minnesota."

"That's great. Thanks for the history lesson-" Tara began, irritated, but Alex cut her off.

"Get to the point. What's the relevance of water?"

"There's a goddess in the lake."

Silence greeted this revelation.

"You wanna run that by me one more time?"

"Lily Lake, by the hospital. I'm not sure who she really is, because she's sort of asleep. Dormant, but the story goes that she's always been here, in the water, long before settlement began."

"You mean, a Native American god?" Alex asked, frowning, her brain whirring. Aedre shook her head.

"No, not really. She's sort of…everything. She gets a new name every time a new religion comes by, as far as I can tell."

"What do you call her?"

"Mother, usually. That's sort of how my faith interprets the world, you know? Mother Earth, Mother Goddess, Gaia. And water is inherently female; life giving and nurturing. It's a common idea, especially in polytheistic religions. I think whatever sleeps in the lake is an aspect of my Goddess, but at the same time, she's sort of… Minerva."

Alex's eyebrows went up, sceptical and surprised.

"Minerva…the Roman goddess?"

"She's on a lot of stuff around here. There's a statue of her in the Minneapolis Central Library. And one of her aspects is a water goddess; Sulis Minerva."

"Hold up, hold up."

This was Tara, who was barely following anything the other two women said.

"How do you know there's anything in this lake?"

"I can feel it. The energy there is incredible – I think that's why they built the hospital so close by, even if they didn't know they were doing it. And there's a Sheela-Na-Gig there too; I think that's sort of a marker for where she sleeps."

"And what the hell is a Sheila-majig?"

"A Sheela-Na-Gig," Aedre corrected her. She got up and took down a slim volume from the bookshelf, handing it to Tara, who barely glanced at it before handing it to Alex.

"It's not a proper one. They started out in Ireland, centuries ago; they're stone carvings, put up to protect a place, keep evil away, that sort of thing."

"And you got one here?"

Alex glanced up from looking through the book.

"Like I say, it's not a proper one, not all that old. The real ones are supposed to be remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion. That's sort of why I call her Mother, you know?"

"No, I don't," Tara replied, snappish with impatience. "How is this supposed to help us kill a Manticore?"

Aedre pulled more books down from the shelf, opening a ring-bound folder and flicking through it, taking out papers as she went.

"The Manticore breathes fire. She's in the water. Maybe she can help."

Tara stared at the girl; at first, Tara had been glad Aedre didn't shock easily. Now her lack of awareness of how insane the words coming out of her mouth were was starting to grate.

"So, let me get this straight. You want us to wake up a sleeping water goddess living in a lake and ask her to help us?"

"Pretty much, yes."

"And how exactly would we go about doing that? If any of this is even remotely possible?"

"I have an awakening spell here somewhere… it might work."

"No, come on. This – are we even thinking about this?" Tara directed this at her sister, who was being surprisingly calm, almost serene in the face of this peculiar development.

"Gotta be worth a look."

"Seriously? The Lady in the Lake? That's our best option?"

"What else do we have to go on?"

"You're okay with this? Cos, you know, our track record with pagan gods ain't exactly good."

"Excuse me?" Aedre stared at them, taken aback.

"You've – met pagan gods?"

"Long story. And they weren't sleeping, or particularly motherly."

This left Aedre literally speechless, which made Tara feel a bit smug.

"So this Minerva chick… who's she?"

Aedre recovered herself enough to hand Tara the paper she'd taken from her folder.

"_T__he virgin goddess of __poetry__, __wisdom__, __crafts__, __magic__, and the inventor of music. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl, which symbolizes her ties to wisdom_," Tara read.

"Okay, I get why you like her. But…"

"Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, but in Rome she takes on this warlike character, like Athena, her Greek counterpart," Aedre explained, as if she were a lecturer addressing a room of students.

"And in Britain, she takes on the identity of the local wisdom goddess, Sulis."

"And she is…?"

"Part of a pre-Roman Celtic polytheism."

"Oh, really. Well, that clears that up."

"Sorry, this is sort of a hobby of mine."

Aedre gave her an apologetic smile.

"I've been researching this for years, trying to put a name to her. You ever hear the phrase _genius loci_?"

"No. Sounds like a prog rock band from the seventies," Tara smirked. Alex elbowed her in the ribs, still absorbed in reading what Aedre had given her.

"Do go on." Tara couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice, but Aedre either didn't notice or was so used to it she didn't care.

"They're protective guardian spirits, based in one spot like a spring, pool or well. It's probably where the idea of wishing wells come from. In England Sulis was like this – she lived in a sacred thermal spring. People used to write messages to her and throw them in, asking for things like cures from illness, or granting curses to anyone the writes wanted revenge on."

"Charming. So, she's powerful?"

"Very. But like I said, localised. Our goddess is bound to one place, but she's part of something more, an aspect of a greater goddess, maybe all of them. And here… well, we have a lot of water, countless lakes and rivers. I think she used to be in all of them, but someone trapped her here and now she's stuck."

"How come you've never tried to wake her before?"

Aedre shrugged.

"That isn't something you do lightly. Her energy is good, but I've never quite had the nerve to try it yet."

"There's another problem," Alex pointed out. She was holding Aedre's awakening spell.

"You said Minerva was a virgin goddess?"

"Oh. Yeah, you noticed that, did you?" Aedre looked sheepish.

"What?" Tara demanded.

"This spell," Alex waved the paper at her sister. "Can only be invoked by a person who shares an aspect with the goddess. And Aedre, you've written here that you don't think being a practitioner of one of her crafts would be enough."

"So?"

"So, it can only be cast by a virgin."

"Oh."

Tara thought about that.

"I don't suppose you're-"

"No," was Aedre's emphatic response.

"Then we do have a problem," Alex continued. "Neither am I, and Tara's about as far away from being a virgin as it's possible to be."

"Classy, Lex. Real classy."

But Alex was looking thoughtful.

"I have an idea."

"Are you sure about this?"

Tara stood on the boat launch, looking down at the water, frowning.

"Not really. But, I figure it's our best shot."

Alex looked out across Lily Lake to the island in the centre, covered with autumn wildflowers and ferns.

"At least it's unoccupied. Could've gotten complicated otherwise."

"You think that's something to do with this Minerva?" Tara asked, squinting in the afternoon sun.

"I think it's more to do with the loon nesting site on it. It's protected."

"So, how come our hippy friend comes out here?"

"Aedre said she's never set foot on it; just comes out by boat."

"Can you see the Sheila-majig?"

"For the last time, Tara, it's Sheela-Na-Gig. PJ Harvey wrote a song about them."

"Whatever."

"And no, you can't see it from here. It's at the mooring post. The island has, like, a miniature lake on it and Aedre thinks that's where Sulis Minerva is."

"Fantastic. Shall we?"

The sisters climbed into the small motor boat, and clumsily steered it across the lake. It was quiet, with only a few fishermen at the lakeside, and their crossing was unimpeded, but as they reached the island, both of them began to feel a sense of apprehension.

"This gives me the creeps," Tara muttered. "I thought the energy was supposed to be good here?"

"For Aedre, maybe. She came here looking for a manifestation of her Goddess. We're looking for a weapon."

They moored at the wooden post, where Tara discovered exactly what a Sheela-Na-Gig was.

"You know how you said I was as far away from being a virgin as it's possible to be?" she reminded her sister, unable to tear her eyes away from the crude stone carving.

"Yeah?"

"Turns out I'm not. This is."

Alex looked at the little statue; a naked female figure with her legs spread, showing off, erm, what was between them.

"That book said they were 'exhibitionist.' Seems kind of a mild way of putting it, no?"

"Hey, I'm proud to be a woman and all that, but there's gotta be a line, right?"

"I think I'm more offended by the idea that this is supposed to scare off evil spirits," Alex replied. "I mean, I don't think it'd do much good in our line of work if we tried that."

Tara was laughing too hard at that thought to say anything more.

The Winchesters tied up the boat and made their way to the centre of the island. There was a clear pool within it, fed by a little waterfall and surrounded by reeds; pretty, but the sisters couldn't quite shake the feeling they shouldn't be there.

"You think it's her? Making us feel like this?"

"Maybe. There's gotta be a reason why she was locked in here in the first place, right?" Alex replied

"How 'bout we build a bridge across that one when we come to it, huh?"

Alex took the awakening spell from inside her suit jacket, separating it from the other papers she was carrying..

"You got the other stuff?"

Tara took the stopper out of the bottle in her pocket, the one holding her and her sister's blood, mixed with Aedre's Clearwater and the other ingredients to the spell.

The expression on her face telegraphed quite clearly how uncomfortable she was with what they were doing.

"This isn't all that different from things we've done before, you know," Alex pointed out.

"This is a _world_ away from anything we've done before," Tara snapped back, the atmosphere of the place getting to her. "Can we just get on with it?"

Alex shrugged, too used to her sister to bother arguing that point, and began to read the spell out loud. Tara slowly poured out the bottle's contents as Alex chanted, and as she reached the end, Alex knelt at the side of the pool, and dropped the other sheets of paper into the water, directly on top of the potion.

"I'm really hoping this works," she said, addressing both Tara and the goddess in the water. "These girls, the victims… they were just children. We might not be virgins, but they were, and I'm hoping that's enough, that you can hear this. We need your help to defeat the creature that killed them."

Silence greeted her plea. The sisters stood in silence, watching as the pictures of the manticore's victims soaked up the water from the pool, staining pink with the potion containing their blood. The photographs, inscribed with the names of the victims, sank slowly into the depths.

"So much for that idea," Tara announced, as it became clear that nothing whatsoever was happening. She dug through her pockets, pulling out a coin and flipping it into the water.

"If you're in there, grant me a wish, will you? I could really go for a cheeseburger right now. And a beer. And some pie."

"Tara! This isn't a wishing well."

"That's not what Aedre said," Tara snarked, deliberately not thinking about previous experiences with things that were said to grant wishes. "Might as well, try, huh? 'Stead of this being a complete waste of time."

But Alex wasn't listening; she was staring into the pool, where the surface had begun to ripple and move in waves. She got to her feet as it began to spiral into a whirlpool, increasing in speed until a great fount of water went shooting into the sky. Both sisters jerked back a step, staring in astonishment as the water seemed to solidify into a vaguely human form, hovering above the surface of the pool. The eyes of the figure opened, taking in the two young women before it.

_hello_

The Winchesters exchanged looks.

"Did you hear that too?" Tara asked, more nervous than she thought she had any right to be. How much harm could a person made of water do, anyway?

Alex nodded, and Tara noticed that she didn't seem to be as freaked by all this as Tara herself was, seemed fascinated by this being. Tara wasn't. She killed things that made her nervous, trusted her instincts that if something felt wrong, then it generally was. But, she didn't know what else to do.

"You're Sulis Minerva?" she asked the water being, which smiled in response. It's form was vague, female in suggestion only – unlike the Sheela-Na-Gig, which had clearly been made by someone who didn't know the meaning of the word "subtle" – and the water that made up its shape flowed and twisted, never remaining still long enough for Tara to get a good idea of its appearance.

_That is part of what I am. What I was, once. What my daughter calls me._

"You mean Aedre Seren?" Alex asked. Her head was held high, gazing straight at the deity before her. She couldn't put a name to what she was feeling, but she could sense, somehow, that this was the real deal. Whatever Sulis was, she was powerful, but Alex wasn't afraid. This was no malevolent spirit, although she wasn't to be trifled with either.

_That is no more her true name than Sulis Minerva is mine. But yes, I mean the little witch. And what might you be?_

"Actually, we're Hunters."

Water exploded out from the figure across the pool, as if someone had dropped a stick of dynamite into it. Tara, shielding her face with her arm, wondered for a moment what would happen if she actually did throw some explosives into the goddess' pool.

"We're not here to Hunt you!" Alex shouted, over the roar of the water. "We came to ask for your help!"

_And why should I? When it was people like you who imprisoned me here? Cut off from my votaries? I can still hear their cries, but do nothing. You have woken me, but I am still trapped._

"Can you be freed? If it was someone like us who cast the first spell?"

The whirling water dropped back down, the pool instantly still and calm. The figure had vanished, but the voice in the sisters' heads remained.

_Perhaps something can be done. Climb into my waters._

The girls hesitated. Then Alex started to pull off her heeled boots.

Tara stared at her.

"Seriously?

Alex shrugged, serene.

"She said 'climb into my waters'. How is that anything other than creepy and weird?"

"How do you expect a pagan goddess to speak?"

Alex kicked off her boots, and looked for a spot to jump in, but Sulis spoke up again.

_Skyclad, little Hunters. Skyclad._

"What?"

"Uh, I think she wants us to go in naked," was Alex's interpretation.

"What? Why? Little cold for skinny dipping, isn't it?

Alex didn't bother to reply, just started undressing. Tara sighed.

"Had to be Minnesota in the autumn, didn't it? Couldn't have been Florida during Spring Break?"

But she had no choice, so she stripped off her 'I'm an official, honest' suit and plunged into the pool.

Alex hesitated a moment, looking over the water, trying to see a pattern in the ripples, see what the goddess could be planning, but there was nothing except her naked sister, surfacing from the depths, so she closed her eyes and jumped in too.

The water was even colder than she'd thought, and she had to kick vigorously for a moment, gasping, until she got over the shock.

"What now?" Tara asked, teeth chattering as she splashed around, trying to warm up a little. "Don't tell me this is just for our health."

"There."

Alex nodded at the waterfall. On reaching it, the sisters waited, treading water.

"If she's yanking our chain…" Tara muttered. Alex swept her blonde bangs out of her face and stared into the waterfall.

"There's a cave behind."

"Huh?"

Alex took a deep breath and dived, swimming under the waterfall, surfacing in the tiny hollow in the rock. Tara joined her moments later, and then Sulis reappeared. This time, she took on almost solid form; that of a dark-haired, blue-eyed woman in classical dress, her hair put up in a style Alex recognised from Roman paintings.

She was seated at the back of the grotto like a queen presiding over her court, a smile on her face that was almost mischievous.

"Okay, here we are. So…" Tara clearly still felt uncomfortable around the goddess, but Alex was quite calm, tranquil. Was that Sulis, or something in herself?

"Is that what you really look like?" she asked

The goddess met her eyes, which made Alex feel very tiny.

"No. But when I was called Sulis Minerva, this is how I was visualised. I have – grown fond of this shape."

"Got any unicorn horn?"

This was Tara, shivering in the cold water. The goddess laughed, the sound echoing around the cavern.

"Would it help you if I had?"

"We need to kill a Manticore. That's the only thing I know of that'll kill one, unless you have any better ideas…?"

"A Manticore? You _are_ in over your head, little hunters."

"You've seen one before?"

"Child, I've seen _everything_ before."

"Aedre said you're part of a greater power," Alex spoke up. "A Mother Goddess; nurturing and life-giving. Is there any truth in that?"

"Perhaps. I have been around such a long time; I forget how some choose to see me."

"But you are powerful," Alex insisted. "I can tell that, and I'm no witch."

"Aren't you?" Sulis focused on Alex so directly she felt as if the goddess were reading her soul.

"You have power too, a dark power. And you cast the spell to wake me-"

"What do you mean 'a dark power'?"

Fear shot through Alex, the memory of everything every demon had ever said about her filling her brain.

"You can see something in me?"

"Lexie-" Tara tried to pull her sister's attention back to the matter in hand, but Alex was seized by the idea she could finally get some answers.

"That's why you wanted us in the water, right? To read us? What is it you can see in me? My premonitions?"

"Your potential," was Sulis' frustrating answer. "There is something in you, and the intention is dark, but… there are a number of ways you could go."

"But what is this darkness?" Alex insisted. "What is it?"

"Undecided."

"Look, can you help us waste this thing, or not?" Tara demanded, losing patience. There was only so long she could stay quiet while treading water naked in a lake full of crazy.

Sulis turned her penetrating gaze onto Tara.

"Patience, little mother."

Tara felt as if she'd been punched in the gut.

"What did you call me?"

Sulis smiled like a sibyl.

"No – that wasn't real," Tara tried to insist, but every feeling she'd been holding back since she'd lost that baby, dream or no, was forcing itself up inside her, screaming at her from inside her own head and her defences were being washed away.

"You were once the mother of a child. Reality is irrelevant."

Alex stared at them both. Sulis was calm, seemed even amused by what was going on; Tara was practically hyperventilating. Hating herself for what she had to do, she grabbed Tara's arm.

"T, I know I've been riding your ass to talk about this, but now isn't the time. The job, remember?"

"It kills kids," was Tara's response. Her tone was not reassuring.

"We have to stop it. I want it dead."

"Yeah. So, can you help us?" Alex turned back to Sulis, not sure which of the two scared her more right then.

"Of course. But I cannot leave this place; that spell is not yet broken."

"Any clues?" Alex had lost any feeling of serenity and was now just impatient to get the hell out of there.

"I could perhaps imbue one of you with a share of my power. That should be enough to… dampen the energy of this creature you hunt, so that you may destroy it."

"How would that work?" Alex was more than uneasy at this suggestion.

"Were I free, I could remove this being with little effort. But the spell to release me is far more difficult than your little awakening spell and we do not have the time. So one of you shall have to be my… instrument."

"You're going to possess us?"

Alex was genuinely alarmed; she had no desire to repeat _that_ experience.

"Nothing so crude."

Sulis' expression was distasteful.

"I am no petty demon; I have no need to force myself upon humans. I shall grant you a gift, and that will allow you to carry out this execution."

The sisters stared at the goddess, shivering in her waters.

"Well," Alex said finally. "We don't have much choice; I suppose this is our best shot."

"Not you, little Hunter. I shall not share my power with you; something else has designs on you and I do not trust it."

Alex, knowing that Sulis must be referring to the yellow-eyed demon, wanted nothing more right then than to get as far away from this pagan deity as she could. But Alex had been facing the things that terrified her since she was a child, and she'd learned how to force those fears down deep inside, where they wouldn't stop her doing what she had to do. And she knew that whatever Tara was facing inside herself right then, her sister was the same.

"Do you agree, little mother? Shall you be my instrument of destruction?"

Tara's expression was unreadable.

"What do I have to do?"

"Accept me."

"That's it?"

Sulis got to her feet, approaching the water's edge almost daintily. Arranging the skirt of her dress, she knelt and extended her hand towards Tara.

Alex still had no idea what was going through her sister's mind as she reached up to the goddess and she never really understood what happened next. Sulis took hold of Tara's hand, there was a bright flash of brilliant white light, and then she and Tara were back outside the goddess' cave, at the spot they'd first entered the water.

"What? How'd we-?"

Alex floundered in the pool for a moment, looking wildly around, but Tara was not so confused. Climbing out of the water, she began to dress again as if nothing strange had occurred.

"Tara? You okay?"

"I'm fine, Lexie. You gonna stay in there all day?"

"What happened?"

Tara turned to face her little sister, flexing her fingers as if testing them and, well, Alex couldn't quite put her finger on what is was that had changed about Tara, but she almost seemed to be glowing. There was a strange light in her eyes and a certain tenseness in her stance indicated the new power she was suddenly brimming with.

"I can feel it. I can feel… everything."

"Everything?"

"Yeah. It's like… getting a whole new other sense. I can feel stuff I never knew existed. It's-"

"Terrifying?"

Alex, still treading water in the pool, stared up at her sister, whose whole expression was lit up in what appeared to be wonder and bliss.

"Incredible."

Alex was not comforted by this.

"Come on, Lexie. I know where it is."

"The Manticore? Where?"

"It's hunting. We have to go now."

Alex scrambled out of the pool, pulling on her clothes as quickly as she could; Tara was already striding away and was untying the boat when Alex caught up with her. Their trip back to dry land seemed quicker than on the way out, as if driven by an unnatural wind, but Alex chose not to mention that, let alone question it. She wasn't entirely sure that the woman sitting next to her was truly her sister, but until the job was done and the Manticore was dead, well, she'd have to put up with that.

The moment they touched the shore, Tara leapt from the boat and headed off back towards the Impala. Alex moored up quickly, and by the time she'd reached the car, Tara had raised the false floor of the trunk and was rooting through their collection of weapons. Alex took a towel from her bag and began drying off her hair. She pulled out dry clothes, her regular clothes this time, and began to change, hiding behind the car in case any curious fishermen happened to look their way. Once that was done, she handed Tara the towel and was given an enormous machete in exchange.

"Decapitation should work – you think you can handle that side of things?"

Alex frowned.

"Um, on something that breathes fire? Have you forgotten what happened last time I met this thing?"

Tara smiled, her expression unfathomable.

"Leave that to me."

She began to dry herself off and change her clothes.

"Just be ready when I tell you."

If Alex had thought nothing more could surprise her right then, she was wrong. Throwing her the keys, Tara climbed into the passenger seat, closing her eyes as if channelling from the spirit world.

"You – want me to drive?"

"I need to concentrate. The Manticore's on the move and we need to plan ahead for when we find it."

"Okay."

Alex got behind the wheel, still enormously uneasy. But sometimes, just going along with it was the best course of action.

Tara directed her, eyes still closed, until they reached yet another park, Settlers Park, close to an elementary school.

"You said it was hunting?" Alex asked, grimly.

"Uh-huh. School's out now, so places like this must be an all-you-can-eat buffet to this sucker, huh?"

"What do you want to do?" Alex quizzed her sister, deliberately not looking at her.

"Just… follow my lead."

Tara got out of the car, sniffing the air like a tracking dog.

"That's reassuring," Alex muttered. But she got up, hiding the sheathed machete against her spine, under her camouflage jacket, and the sisters headed off into a patch of trees. The light was starting to fade, and most children in the park were being herded up by their parents, but a few lingered. It wasn't perhaps the most obvious park to have chosen – no purpose built playground, like some of the other parks, but its proximity to the school made it an ideal hunting ground for a man-shaped eater of children.

"Where is it?"

"Close," was Tara's terse reply. "It's watching the kids… choosing a victim, waiting for one of them to wander off. It likes to get them on their own."

Alex shuddered, scanning across the park but so far, no large red-headed men.

"It's in the trees. Come on."

Tara set off, skirting around the edge of the park. Alex followed, mindful of the need not to draw attention or appear suspicious.

A pair of young girls, no more than eleven or twelve years old, were leaving the park. Hand-in-hand, they walked away, into the darker, tree-lined roads and from the shadows, something watched them. Even without Tara's new 'sense', Alex would have noticed something was wrong. There was a sense of menace in the air, as an extra shadow leaned out across the path, following the girls at an ever shrinking distance. The Winchesters tracked their prey as stealthily as the Manticore did the girls, waiting for the right time and place to strike.

Finally, the children turned down a darkened path, where the only light flickered on and off, casting strange shadows, and the Manticore made its move. Knowing they didn't have time to waste, the sisters ran forward, yelling out a warning to the children, who jumped in surprise, then ran like deer.

The Manticore, cheated of its delayed kill, bellowed in anger, the three rows of razor-sharp teeth glinting in the lowlight. It drew in a deep breath, preparing to engulf them in fire, but Tara threw out a hand and it froze, choking on its own flames.

Alex faltered, thrown off balance by the change in her sister as the goddess' power manifested. Tara practically lit up and Alex could have sworn her feet were no longer touching the ground. The power streamed out of her, holding the Manticore in an invisible forcefield where it could move but not advance. It tried to shoot its darts at them, roaring in fury, but Sulis' power made short work of them and they dropped harmlessly to the ground.

"Not expecting this, were you?" Tara called out, her tone sparking with malevolence. "Hunt children on my land, would you? I _don't_ think so!"

"Tara…" Alex was staring in horror at what had been her sister. She remembered all too well what it was like to be possessed – that week she'd spent with demon Morgan in the driving seat had been one of the worst of her life.

"You still there?"

"She's here," came the reply. "Come on, Lexie. Your turn."

The Manticore tried to hurl itself forward, but the forcefield tightened, wrestling it into submission, its arms held back as if restrained by unseen hands. Still the monster struggled, hissing like a furious wildcat and Alex took a step forward, unsheathing the machete and raising it, hesitantly. She knew this thing had killed several children already, nearly killed her, but this didn't seem right. The power her sister was channelling right then terrified her, and taking down a monster that couldn't fight back didn't seem… fair.

"What are you waiting for?" Tara cried, sounding the most like her sister she had since allowing the goddess to possess her.

"You want me to do all the work? This thing _poisoned_ you, Lex! It would've killed you if it wasn't for me and Aedre. You have to finish it, now. We can't let it just go around killing little girls. Children."

Alex looked back at Tara. She was standing proud and tall, her arm outstretched as the borrowed energy flowed out of her, but her eyes - her eyes were still her sister. They no longer glowed, but were filled with pain and rage. The pain, Alex knew, that Tara had felt when she had lost her unborn child. When she had nearly lost Alex to the monster before them now. Fair or no, this thing had to die.

So she took one further step forward, swung the machete, and just like that, the Manticore died.

The head hit the ground with a sickening thud, followed moments later by the decapitated body.

"Huh," was Alex's comment. "Thought somehow it'd be more dramatic than that."

The words had barely left her mouth when the body was engulfed in a sudden rush of intense flame, leaping out of the dead flesh to devour what was left of the Manticore.

"Is that - supposed to happen?"

Tara looked down at the blazing remains, head tilted on one side as if listening to something only she could hear. Then she raised her hand again, and a jet of water shot from her arm, drenching the headless corpse and extinguishing the flames.

"It would appear that fire regenerates a Manticore, much like a Phoenix. We can't have that."

"It's going to grow back its _head_?"

"No. I can stop it from entering its healing cycle. But we should gather the remains, remove them to somewhere safe."

"Any suggestions…?"

Tara smiled, but this time the eyes were purely Sulis Minerva.

"Bury him in my waters. That should keep him… quiet."

"Is it actually dead, though? Properly?"

"It will be. Go and bring the car here."

Alex found she'd rather do as she was told than argue with whatever it was wearing her sister's face right then.

Thankfully, no-one seemed to notice the two young women wrapping a headless corpse in a tarpaulin and loading it into the trunk of a 1967 Chevrolet Impala. Alex wondered if Sulis was somehow responsible for that, preventing people from noticing them, or if the people in this part of town were just so unused to trouble they never looked for it. Decided that asking might be pushing her luck, and got on with the job. Whatever had happened, would happen now, this thing was dead at least. No more children here would die slow, painful deaths before being devoured by a shark-mouthed lion-headed monster, leaving no remains to give any clue of what had done it.

It was full dark when they returned to Lily Lake, and the boat hire stand had closed up, but Tara's borrowed power made short work of that too.

"You want to dump it in the pool on the island?"

Tara's face showed Sulis' disgust at that idea.

"You think I want that beast polluting where I sleep? No, these waters will suffice. Find the deepest spot."

"You sure no-one'll find it? There are a lot of fishing spots around here – won't it end up on shore?"

Again, that disturbing smile.

"I shall take care of that. Rest assured, little Hunter, no one will find this creature."

The girls wrapped stones into the tarpaulin, then dumped it over the side of the boat into the lake. Alex watched the waters close over it as it sank straight down, far smoother than it should have done.

"So… now what?"

In reply, Tara's head snapped back as if in a seizure and she crumpled into an unconscious heap at the bottom of the boat.

"Tara? Tara!"

Alex grabbed her sister, checking for a pulse. Tara was breathing steadily, but deeply unconscious – the goddess' power had left her. So Alex decided her best course of action was to motor the boat back to the launch and haul her deadweight sister out. She left the boat floating, figuring that the owners would blame joyriders (joysailors?) and no real harm would be done. She had other priorities right then.

"T? You in there?"

She scooped water from the lake into her cupped hands and dashed it in Tara's face.

"Come on, Tara. Don't make me have to take you back to that doctor whose ass you couldn't stop staring at. You here?"

Tara stirred, her limbs twitching as her eyes opened, as if emerging from a comfortable sleep.

"I'm here. Did that really happen?"

"I - think so."

"It feels like a dream. The good sort of dream, I mean, not the ones we usually have."

Tara stretched like a cat, sitting slowly up.

"But we got it, didn't we? The Manticore?"

"Yeah. We got it. You okay?"

"I'm more than okay. That energy… man, I'm buzzing like I just downed two dozen espressos."

Tara got to her feet, shaking out her arms like she had pins and needles.

"What a rush! Shame I had to share my head with crazy water lady."

Alex watched Tara, doubt making her wary.

"You sure she's gone?"

"Hell, yeah! This is just a – hangover."

"Huh, you with a hangover. How unlikely."

"Sarcasm will get you nowhere, Lexie," Tara sang, hopping from foot to foot.

"God, I feel like I need to run. Can I run?"

Alex raised her eyebrows as her sister jiggled about like a toddler in the middle of a sugar rush, unable to stay still for a moment.

"You are in a park. Knock yourself out."

Tara sprinted off into the dark, faster than Alex had ever seen her run without something chasing her. And with nothing better to do right then, she went and sat in the car and, digging out a Smashing Pumpkins tape to fill the time, waited for Tara to come back.

It was a full half hour later that Tara ran herself out and dropped down in the passenger seat of the car.

"Feel better now?"

"Man, I never felt this good running before. This is crazy!"

"You said it."

But Tara was grinning, feeling the buzz too much to care right then.

"You done?" Alex asked. "I was thinking we should head for a motel, get some sleep before we head out-"

"Not yet. There's one or two people we have to see first."

"You wanna go back to see Sulis Minerva?"

"Uh no, I said people. I'm in no hurry to go see our nudist little water goddess again. Why are you in the driving seat of my car?"

Alex suppressed a smile; Tara was definitely herself again, even if she was irritatingly hyper.

"You told me to drive, when you were sharing your head."

"That was then, this is now. My car, my rules. Shift over, Lexie."

Tara didn't bother getting out and walking around the car; instead she climbed straight over the gearstick, elbowing Lexie aside so that she had to open the door and slip out to avoid Tara sitting on her.

Sighing, she went around and sat in the passenger seat.

"How long are you going to be like this?"

"Who knows? Could be permanent!"

"God help me!"

Thankfully, even in the very short drive to the hospital, Tara was much calmer by the time they got there, heading straight to the room of Max Wiley, the Manticore's last would-be victim.

"How's she doing?" Tara asked the little girl's parents, still seated by their daughter's bedside.

Brooke and Ryan Wiley looked up; the relief on their tired faces was almost enough in itself to make Tara feel this was a job well done.

"She's doing okay," Ryan told her. He looked a little confused as to why a doctor from the CDC would be wearing jeans and a leather jacket, but Tara hadn't wanted to waste time going to a motel to shower and change before seeing how the kid was.

"Dr Weir thinks she'll make a full recovery. Whatever that was that you gave her, the medicine… it did the trick."

"Thank you so much, Dr Wretzky," Brooke added, getting up and grasping Tara's hand between both of her own. "You saved our little girl's life."

Even through the euphoria that still flooded her veins from the goddess' possession, Tara felt tears prick at her eyes.

"It's my job," she told the grateful parents. "I only wish I could have saved the other children… that I hadn't been too late."

"Don't."

Brooke Wiley threw her arms around Tara's neck.

"Don't say that. You saved Max, when no-one else could. Thank you."

Alex watched from the doorway, wondering just what was going through Tara's head right then. If Sulis had seen Tara's memory of her lost baby, even one from a dream, in her, then it must still be at the forefront of her mind – Alex chose to ignore what Sulis had said about Alex herself, the 'dark power' within her at that moment. She'd worry about that later.

Dr Weir came up behind her, looking far less stressed and exhausted than he had that morning.

"You been here all day? Don't you sleep?"

"I went home for a few hours after I discharged you this morning," he replied. "Max seemed to be out of danger, so…"

"Yeah."

"You mind if I do a few follow-up tests?" Dr Weir asked her. "I'd like to check your results with Max's, when she wakes up."

"Sure."

Alex caught Tara's eye, nodding to let her know she was leaving. Tara, seeing who she was with, grinned, dropping her gaze to take in Dr Weir's particularly fine ass as he walked away. Alex was relieved to see that her sister seemed to be back to normal and mildly irritated at the form in which this okay-ness had manifested itself.

Tara caught up with them as Dr Weir was finishing taking Alex's blood sample and updating his notes. He smiled to see her, putting down the clipboard.

"Why don't you rest up here for a while?" he said to Alex, not even looking at her.

"I'm sure you need it."

"Oh, I'm fine-"

"I need to talk to your partner here."

And he walked away, touching Tara's arm as he passed, leaving Alex to sit on the examining table and roll her eyes.

They walked to the coffee shop, picking up drinks and sharing a table before Dr Weir got to his point.

"So… you and Dr Auf Der Maur'll be heading back to Atlanta soon, right?"

"We're moving on, yeah. I'm not sure where we'll end up – we kind of go wherever we're needed."

"That must be rough."

Tara shrugged, sipping her Americano.

"I would say I'm used to it, but…"

"Well, I'm glad you came here. Not just because you saved Max Wiley's life, but…"

Dr Weir dropped his eyes for a moment, then looked up at her through his lashes, smiling in an almost embarrassed manner.

"I never knew the CDC had so many attractive doctors on their payroll."

Tara smiled back, but her heart wasn't in it. He was hot, yes, and he was a good guy, but now the goddess' touch was fading, she had to face up to what she was feeling inside.

"Look, Dylan," she began, and Dr Weir's smile vanished.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to be unprofessional."

"It's not that."

Tara reached over the table and touched his arm.

"I just… It's been a rough year from me and I'm not really in the place to be looking for anything right now. Don't get me wrong, you are smokin' hot and usually I'd be… well, I wouldn't be thinking all that much, if you get what I'm saying. But… what with my dad passing this year, and-"

Tara hesitated, the black cloud hovering over her.

"I sort of… lost a baby, not that long ago."

Dr Weir's eyes widened in shock, and he leaned forward, grasping her hand.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. I had no idea…"

Tara couldn't meet his concerned eyes, fixing her own on the tabletop between them.

"I don't talk about it much. Haven't really talked to anyone since it happened, not even Lexie. Guess I haven't really wanted to face up to it."

"I'm really sorry."

Dr Weir squeezed her hand, and Tara relaxed a little.

"I mean, I didn't really want to be a Mom, at first. It would've meant a career change, at least, right? But I was starting to come around to the idea. If nothing else, it was my responsibility and you don't walk away from those. So, I was gonna try, was gonna be the best damn parent I could be. See, my mom died when I was little - I never really knew what it was like to have a mom, not since I was four, and my kid… well, my kid was gonna know better. I was gonna be there, do everything I could to keep them safe. But turns out I couldn't."

"Hey." Dr Weir ducked his head down to catch her eye.

"It wasn't your fault. There probably wasn't anything anyone could've done. Sometimes these things -"

"Just happen? Yeah, I heard that one. But thanks. For listening."

"Least I can do. Look, let me give you my number."

Dr Weir passed her a card he pulled from his wallet.

"If you want to talk, or if you're passing by this way again. I mean, I hope you don't come back here professionally…"

"I hear that."

But this time Tara smiled; just a small smile, but a genuine one, and she felt a little better for having, finally, told someone how she felt. Even if, you know, she was lying to him through her teeth at the same time. Maybe that was the way forward.

As they finished their coffee, Dr Weir's beeper went off.

"I have to run… uh, you okay?"

"I'm good. Thank you."

Tara got to her feet, but as Dr Weir patted her shoulder in as non-sexual a gesture as he could think of, Tara ignored any doubts she had and grabbed that particularly fine ass, planting a kiss on his particularly fine lips at the same time. Mildly surprised, Dr Weir kissed her back, until his beeper went off again, interrupting them insistently.

"Sorry, I really have to go. But, um, see you around?"

Tara felt her smile widen.

"We'll see. So long, Dr Weir."

"Bye, Dr Wretzky."

Tara watched him walk away, feeling as if at least one weight had been lifted from her shoulders. This wasn't finished yet, but the last bit could wait, so she went to find her sister and they called it a night.

"So, what's this all about?" Alex asked the next morning, as Tara hustled her into the car and headed over to the Aradia Bookstore.

"A little unfinished business with our friendly neighbourhood Wiccan," Tara replied. She was smiling grimly and Alex couldn't tell what was going on inside that head. Hell, she had enough trouble doing that without her sister having shared headspace with a pagan goddess.

"But Aedre Seren helped us, right? She found a cure for the poison, told us how to wake Sulis Minerva?"

"Yeah, but she didn't come with us, did she?"

Tara pushed open the door to the shop, the wind chimes hanging from the ceiling jangling in a deeply irritating way.

"Blessed be!" called out the young man at the counter, who was dressed, rather startlingly, in full-on druid robes, complete with a wreath of leaves on his dark curls.

"Greetings to you, my sisters! How can I assist you -"

"The boss in?" Tara cut him off, her patience nonexistent.

Alex gave her a curious look, but Tara paid her no attention.

"She's in the back. She expecting you?"

The boy dropped his 'paganism for tourists' act, looking them up and down.

Tara smiled again.

"Oh, she'll see us."

The boy stood aside to let them past the counter into the back room, where Aedre Seren was sat at the desk, immersed in tax returns. She looked up as the sisters came in, a smile lighting up her face.

"Hey you! How did your hunt go?"

"Great, thanks. Just got one more question for you though."

"Shoot."

Aedre set down her pen, taking off her reading glasses to give the Winchesters her full attention.

"Why'd you lie to us?"

"Excuse me?" the Wiccan's eyebrows shot up to her dyed red hair.

Tara went right over to the desk, putting her palms down flat on Aedre's paperwork so she could stare right into the other woman's eyes.

"I don't know what your game was, sending us to the goddess, but it kind of backfired, didn't it? She knows who you are, and now so do I."

"Uh, Tara, what?"

Alex had no idea what was going on but the other two barely noticed she was there.

Aedre gazed right back at Tara, her face calm but her expression hardening.

"Caspian!" she called out. The boy on the counter stuck his head round the door in reply.

"Shut the shop and go on your lunchbreak, that's a good boy."

"Um, it's 10:30 in the morning."

"Call it brunch. Just go, okay?"

The boy hesitated, looking from his boss to the Winchesters, clearly uneasy.

"_GO!"_

Both sisters felt that little added push to Aedre's words as Caspian turned and practically ran out of the store.

"That's pretty strong stuff for a Wiccan, isn't it? Mind control?"

Aedre shrugged.

"I don't do it everyday. Only when it's important."

"Somebody mind telling me what's going on?" Alex asked, her own patience running out.

"Do you want to tell her, or shall I?" Tara asked, her tone like flint. Aedre's voice was equally hard.

"Go ahead. Let's see what you've worked out."

"Well, for a start, you said something about the owner of this store, but… that's you."

"Now, yes. I didn't set this store up; I sort of… inherited it."

"And what century was that in?"

"This one. How old do you think I am?"

The penny dropped, and Alex finally figured out what was going on.

"So – more witch than Wiccan."

"I don't differentiate."

"We do."

Aedre concentrated her stare on Alex now.

"You gonna Hunt me now? After I saved your life?"

"Should we? How about the two of you clear a few things up for me?"

"She's the one who trapped Sulis in the lake," Tara began.

Alex frowned.

"I thought she said it was a Hunter who did that."

"It was. I Hunt too, sometimes. What, you thought cos I'm a witch, I must be evil? I'm a little out of practise, I admit; there's a fair few Hunters round here. Or there were…. Couple of them bit the dust recently."

"You know other Hunters?"

"Of course." Aedre looked offended. "I used to help out this guy over in Blue Earth whenever he asked, up until he got his throat cut last year."

Both sisters did a double-take.

"Do you mean Jim Murphy? Pastor Jim?"

"You knew him too? Real shame. Never did find out what did for him."

"It was a demon," Tara told her. "Goes by the name Morgan; real peach of a guy. We got a few scores to settle with that son of a bitch next time we catch up with him."

"Well, if you do, give him a kick in the jewels from me, won't you?"

"Uh, sorry to nag, but we're getting a bit off topic, don't you think?"

Alex was still no closer to getting the whole picture here and that irritated her.

"So you're a witch; a powerful one, and you've been around a while. But you don't go around hexing people and you Hunt."

"Yep."

"So why didn't you go after the Manticore when it started killing kids in your town?"

"I didn't know it was one til you two turned up. Like I said… out of practise."

Aedre looked genuinely regretful.

"I thought the little girls were just sick, so I was trying to raise some healing energies around the hospital. Couldn't figure out why they weren't doing any good. Guess I was too focused on healing magicks to see what was right in front of me."

"And you lied to us because…?"

"Uh, hello? You're _Hunters_. I didn't have time to explain. You think this is the first time in a couple hundred years I've come across Hunters trying to off me?"

"You sent us to Sulis Minerva, but you were the one to lock her up in the first place."

"I don't care for competition."

"Competition?" Alex repeated. "From a water goddess? You're gonna have to explain that one."

"I really don't. It was a long time ago. We… argued, and I put up the Sheela-Na-Gig to trap her in the lake. She used to be all over Minnesota… maybe further. Think her name came from the early settlers."

"What?"

Aedre sighed. She span her chair around and pointed at the bubbling glass jar on the sideboard

"The bezoar? Came to the States with some explorer who had a huge collection of curiosities. He said it was from the court of Elizabeth I, originally. A lot of stuff got, ahem, lost when King James I came to power – he hated witchcraft, so all the scientists went running around getting rid of anything that could've gotten them executed. This explorer also brought a lot of ideas about pagan religions with him, and I think that's how she got that name. Minerva being the goddess of wisdom and all that; he'd have known who she was, seen her as a 'pet' goddess perhaps. She wouldn't tell me what her name was before."

"Fascinating. Why d'you send us to her?"

"I knew it'd take more power than I have to stop a Manticore. Worked, didn't it? And I was working on a back up."

She indicated the antidote she was brewing.

"Oh, that's reassuring," Tara snarked. "It never crossed your mind that, I don't know, actual back-up might've been more helpful?"

"You didn't need me, though, did you?"

"So… this yours, then?" Alex had picked up the Book of Shadows that was still out.

"I suppose. It belonged to the woman who set this store up. I've been adding to it. Most of my old hunting journals are in there now, too. I never had a Book of Shadows before."

"Most witches don't."

"I'm not most witches." Aedre gave them a rather cold smile.

"You can't have been here long, though," Alex pointed out. "Place like this… and you don't exactly live incognito. People tend to notice someone not getting older for hundreds of years."

"_Au contraire."_

Aedre's smile was dazzling now.

"I've been here since this city was nothin' but lumber and sawmills. I'm just careful."

"So that's not what you really look like? You got a real name?"

"Course I do, but I don't use it. And as for really looking like this… guess I do. See, what I do is, I get old naturally and I die. Not genuinely, but everyone thinks I'm dead, so I grow a new face, a new identity and I roll into town and start again."

"Why?"

"I like it here. I've gone away a couple of times, seen the world and all that. But this place…it pulls you back in."

Tara had a sudden memory flashback of Dr Dylan Weir telling her almost exactly the same thing not that long ago.

"Lot of people round here say that. Maybe it's something in the water," she remarked with a smirk.

The look on Aedre's face as this sank in was priceless.

"I think you should go have a talk with the Lady in the Lake, yeah?"

As the sisters left Aradia, Tara's cell phone rang.

"Oh, hi Bobby. Yeah, everything's fine. Sorry, guess I forgot to call."

"You got the Manticore?"

"Yeah, it's toast." Tara sniggered. "But, uh, don't think we could do what we did again. Keep on looking for that unicorn horn, yeah?

"Any chance you wanna explain that one?"

"You busy? We could head over your way for a spell."

"Sure. There's a few things I need to run by you two, anyway."

"Okay. Say, Bobby, you ever run into a Hunter from this neck of the woods, goes by the name Aedre Seren Cantrell?"

"Can't say that I have. What kind of a name is Aedre Seren? She some sort of hippy?"

"Witch."

"Wait a minute…she wouldn't be a red-haired chick, would she? Makes her own Holy Water and gives it some weirdass name?"

"That's our girl."

"Yeah, I met her. She and a bunch of other hippies were lighting candles at a spot where a bunch of people got ripped apart by a werewolf. Said they were 'purifying the site' or some load of bull. First time I ever saw the law let any freak with their own rock salt perform rituals inside crime scenes."

"That sounds 'bout right. She any help in taking it down? The werewolf?"

"Some. You say she's a witch? The real deal?"

"Uh-huh. You see her again, keep an eye on her, huh?"

"Alright. See you when you get here."

"Thanks, Bobby."

"We done?" Alex asked, somewhat sardonically, opening the car door.

"Hell, yeah."

For all that had happened, Tara couldn't wait to put Stillwater in the rearview mirror.

"You don't want another dose of pagan goddess caffeine buzz, or whatever the hell Sulis did to you, then."

"God, no. That was one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me, ever. And we've seen and done some pretty weird things."

"You're telling me."

Alex was thoughtful.

"You know how sometimes we've said our job might be easier if we were men? This is probably an exception."

"Yeah…"

Tara considered that.

"We'd get less people laughing in our faces, fewer monsters thinking we're just wannabes who've seen too much 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' but I doubt Sulis Minerva would've helped Dad out, if he'd come here hunting."

Alex almost choked on the thought of John Winchester asking the goddess for help, let alone stripping off and jumping into the pool as they had done.

"Dad and a Mother Goddess… yikes."

"Yikes," Tara agreed.

Alex looked over at her sister.

"So…you okay?"

The question sounded light, but Alex loaded it with enough concern that Tara knew what she was getting at. Tara sighed.

"Yeah. I am. I will be."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I'm good, thanks Lexie. How 'bout you? You had a busy couple of days – got poisoned, got cured by a magic rock, then you got to cut the head off a Manticore."

"That's one for the diary, yeah," Alex admitted, rubbing her neck. The dart hadn't left a mark, but she could feel something wasn't quite right. Never mind. That would heal.

"Don't forget a water goddess telling me I have a dark power in me. We get to have all the fun, don't we?"

"Little perks, huh?"

Tara was grinning, both sisters doing their best to slough the negative experiences of the Hunt.

"And the kid, Max - she'll be okay. Who knows what Sulis and Aedre'll do next?"

"How about we don't stick around to find out?" Alex suggested, opening her car door. Tara shrugged.

"Fine by me. Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."

The Impala grumbled into life, and the sisters drove away. As they crossed over the river, Alex looked down at the fast-moving water, wondering just what it was they'd woken in the lake. What is was that Sulis had seen inside her, and what would happen when it woke up too. Alex knew that day was coming, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answers to those questions that filled her head. But she knew that, whatever it was, she had to face it. It all led back to the demon, Yellow Eyes himself, the one who'd killed her mother, and Dylan, probably her father too, and would no doubt kill herself and her sister, if they didn't get there first.

As always, the only way she could see to survive the oncoming storm was to head right for it, and hope to come out the other side. So Alex sat up, stared ahead at the road stretching out before them as they drove away from Stillwater, and tried to prepare herself for what was coming.

* * *

><p>Okay, so a lot of this is made up, but the expositionary stuff is based on research of 'real' things and places, like Sheela-na-gigs, bezoars, Manticores and Sulis Minerva, who was a goddess based in Bath, England, near where I live but, as far as I'm aware, has never been to Minnesota. I haven't either, so while most of the place names in this are real, I have no idea how (in)accurate any of this is, having taken the information of the Internet. But seeing as how the show does this all the time, I think I'm allowed a little leeway here…<p>

As to character names, almost all of my OCs have water related names, to indicate the influence Sulis had on the town, even when asleep: Aedre means river, Dylan means Man of the Sea, (and Weir should be self explanatory, as is Nurse Seabrook), Caspian is the name of a sea, Brooke means stream and Ryan means water. Their surname, Wiley, means water meadow.

Max has no water connections, but it does to Manticore – the name of the company that genetically engineered super-soldiers in the TV show 'Dark Angel.' The lead in this was called Max, and one of her 'siblings', if you don't already know, was played by Jensen Ackles.


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